Change of Heart

Jeffry was crabby today. Here I'm thinking; he's had a long week at work, he wants his "me" time (sub-thought, I'd like some "me" time too), he's becoming a recluse and doesn't want to spend time with people any more, etc.

I felt I'd done my fair share of preparing him for the day; friends over for breakfast, Jack naps, we head over to Mom and Dad's to eat dinner, pick Leesha up, return to Mom and Dad's for dessert, home and the usual nighttime routine. Despite my efforts to prepare him for the day, I sensed he was just unhappy.

So, we ended up with a discussion of one another's shortcomings but in the end it came out; Thanksgiving just wasn't what it should have been. We should have been serving others instead of ourselves. This thanks to the Compassion by Command series we've been doing at our church, Woodland Hills. Greg Boyd has been preaching against societal norms for a while now, and it seems tonight that we've finally let a tiny bit of it sink in.

I'm not feeling an enormous amount of guilt over having turkey and trimmings or overeating. But I stand with my husband on this. We have been too self centered. Holidays seem more about duties, expectations, busy-ness and self.

Years ago, I made the decision to not buy any gifts for Leesha at Christmas. Instead, we went out and got toys for others. Family didn't understand, but they didn't have to. After we moved into our house, we decided we weren't doing gifts because we couldn't afford it, and figured family would rather us not go into debt on things they didn't need. This time, they understood and supported us.

So, how do we make this about what God would want us to do? Society not-so-subtly says; overeat and overspend in the name of celebrating. We've gotten a bit better with more charitable causes becoming available during the holidays. But I have to ask; is buying toys for children in need really what Christ would want? If the child is considered to be "in need", is it toys they need? Think about that word - need.

I don't think I ever expected to see myself say this with any measure of heartfelt honesty, but what they need is Jesus. Strange, coming from someone with parents and grandparents who served as overseas missionaries. Not that accepting salvation rights everything in peoples lives, but it's a foundational start.

I'm starting now. (that was very intentional typing)

Join me.

Elephants in the house?

Just a few things I've managed to take some notes on ...

On the way home the other day, Jack informs; "My mouf hurts. Somping in dere." I told him I'd look at it when we got out of the car, which I did. When he opened his mouth, I noticed that his 2 year molars had come in. I suppose that would explain the pain as well as there being something in his mouth.

Pulling up to my parents house; "Mama, Grandma's outside! I wanna go talk to her!"

Jack was playing in the basement and then came running upstairs. I heard a thunk and then Jack said; "I be sick!" I immediately assumed he'd opened the lid to the toilet and knew that he was going to throw up, so went to attend to him wondering where he'd figured out to throw up in the toilet, and how he knew he was going to be sick. All that momentary worry over nothing ... he was just shouting at Jeffry through the laundry chute. Near as we can figure, he heard Leesha call down; "Dad, I'll be down in a sec.", thought that was really cool and decided to give it a go himself.

While we were still lounging around the breakfast table with our friends the Pfeifers this morning, Jack discovers that they have a clasp on the handle of their waffle iron and states; "Ackshually, it opens."

While he's supposed to be sitting and eating in the dining room, Jack runs out to the kitchen informing me; "I see elephants!" Thinking he's seen the Newfoundlands out walking on the street, I follow him and say; "Really? Where?" He replied; "In the closet" as he walked over to our buffet and points inside. There on the shelf is the tray that my Grandmother gave us as a wedding present. It's from India and has ..... elephants on it.

More with Grace and Charlie

Grace and Charlie came over again. After Thursday together and part of Friday, I think the novelty of one another had worn off a bit. But they did well together again.

Sitting down to breakfast, Jack states; "My baby sister over dere" indicating Maggie who is in the kitchen still.

Being a protective big brother, Jack takes Maggie's bib from Grace. He then finds Maggie (on the bathroom floor where I'm drying my hair) and throws the bib on her. Somehow, he managed to get the opening right over her face so she was peeking out, and thought it was very funny, so he began to laugh. Maggie smiled in response. Grace was observing this from the doorway and states; "Be kae-po Jack." (Be careful.)

Grace likes to say; "Tuck-a tuck-a tchoo tchoo" with Jack's trains.

At lunch, Jack states; "Gracie, I eating applesauce with my blue dish."

Charlie was saying; "Ack". I don't know if he was trying to say "Jack" or not.

With Grace and Charlie

Grace and Charlie are over today. Some snippets .....

Grace: (shouting) "Jack!" Jack responding: (shouting) "Stop shouting!"

Jack: "Mom, what those guys saying?"

Playing around, knocking on a door .... Jack: "Knock, knock. Who's there?"

Jack, to Grace who is touching the doorknob cover on the side door; "We can't go out there honey."

Jack to Charlie after he burped; "Cha'lie, what you say? 'Xcuse me."

"Jack, you need to walk." "No, mom. I'm Batman. Need'a run."

Jack to Grace before I got a clean pull-up on her: "Cute little butt." (We always tell him that when he's running around bare-bummed.)

Grace: lots of singing! So sweet.

Charlie:
(yeah, he didn't say much. But he would walk around clapping his hands and making happy noises every so often.)



And, of course, a good bunch of; "No!" "Stop!" "Mine!"

New phrases

New phrase; "Mom! Watch I do!" (missing word - what. Mom, watch WHAT I do.)

- or -

"'Bey me!" (Obey me.)

Overheard; "Leesha stop (or was it leave me alone?)! I trying to eat."

Maggie is like a breakdancing sloth. When we lay her down, she'll pivot around on her shoulder ever so slowly.

Jack has been doing great on the potty. When we stopped for gas once, I took him in to use the bathroom. When he was done, he looked around; "Where's a door?" I suggested; "Where's the handle?" As he looked around; "Oh! Dere it is! I foun' it!"

Knock knock

After reading Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear several times, Jack was trying to recite it. "Jesse Bear, what you wear? Pants." on every page.

Leesha likes to pretend taking pictures of Jack, saying; "Cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching." Jack told me he was taking pictures of me and said; "Cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching."

For the first time that I can remember, I'm allowing Jack to have "water play" in the bathroom sink. He must think I get to do that all the time in the kitchen sink when I do dishes. Now, if I could figure out a way to make him think that he's having water play with the dishes in the kitchen sink .....

Leesha had homework tonight. She asked to use my calculator, and I told her to do half the problems herself, then I'd let her use it. After some "balking" (a mild descriptor), I looked at the homework and realized that none of it needed a calculator, so told Leesha to do it all without and then I'd let her check her answers. Once she was done, she got the calculator and was able to check her work. The calculator didn't find anything she hadn't found herself. I'm proud of my girl.

It was a pleasant evening as a family - hanging out and making jokes while Leesha finished her dinner. Jack picked up on the concept of "Knock knock" jokes, even correctly doing both sides of "Knock knock" "Who's there?" "Doctor" "Doctor Who"

Jack - n - Maggie

I told Jack I was going to switch the laundry. He said; "I will do it. I will switch laundry."

I feel a measure of success! I took the babies grocery shopping. Jack stayed dry AND asked to use the potty - - twice. Not that it's entirely convenient to stop shopping twice and go to the bathroom, but he asked! After the first potty break and he was back in the cart, he noticed that his pant leg was pulled up. So, he told me; "Mom, my leg fell out."

Jack now sees himself as a big brother. He actually pays attention to Maggie and tries to meet her needs. Some examples ...

When she is in her saucer and fussing, Jack will tell her; "I right here." We often think she fusses because she cannot see us, so we'll tell her; "I'm right here."

He also asked; "Where Maggie little hanni (hand)?" And when I showed them to him; "Oh dere it is!"

When she was laying on the bathroom floor, he brought her her big lovey and laid it on her. Then he laid down beside her, putting her bitty lovey over himself.

He's interested in my laptop and has pulled the "eraser head" off a couple of times. After putting it back on, he discovered that the arrow on the screen moves when you move the "mouse". I informed Jeffry that Jack had discovered the mouse on my laptop. Then Jack tried to tell him; "I d'scover' mouse on Mommys 'puter."

When he was in the bathroom, he kept telling me; "Mom, I can' hear you. I in bafroom."

The furnace fan was making the toilet paper flutter. This did not please Jack. I don't remember if he was saying; "No!" or something else, but it was amusing.

Jeffry dumped the bristle blocks out on Jack's rug. Not long after, Jack said; "Dad, put bristle blocks away. You made a big mess."

I took the babies with over to Eric's house the other day and the boys started watching Monsters Inc. Jack will now inform people that he watched Monsters Inc. at Eric's house.

On to Maggie ....

She rolled over from tummy to back several times this morning of November the 15th. Not entirely sure it was intentional, not entirely sure it wasn't.

She's grabbing toys and pulling them to her mouth - either to suck on or chew on. One of her places of entertainment is in her crib where I've strung together her plastic rings. I'll put different toys on there for her to bat at, and pull down. It's always fun to see how she scoots about and pulls them down.

Jack is a great source of entertainment to her (well, honestly, she's not the only one entertained by him) and she'll quiet down when he's within sight.

Narrative on getting dressed

Narrative on getting dressed; Jack: "I need socks. Oh dere my socks! I got my socks on?" Mom: "You've got one sock on." Jack: "I got two socks on. Mom pull my pants up."

Veggies one morning; "No! I don' like dat."

"Mom, get "Jesus Loves Me" book. Should I read it for Nikki?" (Nikki is one of his stuffed dogs)

In the car, on our way to the Doctor, I turned so the sun shone on Jack. "No sun! Stop. Hurt my eyes." And later, when I told him Maggie was getting shots, but he didn't need to get any; "I want shots too!"

After the Dr. we went over to Eric's house to help him with installing their countertops. Jack was very excited, but was pronouncing it; "Side ick".

Upon noticing the band aids on Maggie's legs from her shots; "Should I kiss it?" and after doing so; "Should I kiss the other one?"

A little catch-up

I'm avoiding dishes like the plague, and there's not even that many of them.

Tonight, we babysat our Godson, Josiah. He was pleasant and quiet. Jack was very thoughtful of him at times - taking him his cup, handing him his plate of food, etc. It's so cute to watch.

We did our best to de-leaf our yard yesterday. Leesha raked the back yard and had fun playing in the pile with Jack. Jeffry took some pictures after helping her. I mowed/mulched. The neighbors must be at least partly pleased.

Jeffry survived all three children again. He was done early on Friday, so we called off the scheduled sitters and he tended to the children while I went to work for the afternoon.

Thursday evening, we babysat for our friends the Browns. We had a very busy household with our 3 kids and their 3 kids. We even survived the first serious toilet overflow in our house with no water leaking into the basement. I was impressed.

On Wednesday after work, I got the babies and came home to get Leesha. Then she sat in the car with the babies while I ran in and did errands at various places. It's so nice to have a big kid to keep an eye on the little ones so I can get some stuff done a little more quickly.

We were at the Browns house for Small Group on Tuesday. The kids watched a movie while the adults studied. I kept taking Jack to the potty every so often, and was about to do just that when I looked up and there he was with his pants down. I think he'd gone all by himself! He does pretty well at home - especially when he's not encumbered by clothes - but then regresses a bit when he's elsewhere.

On Monday, I tackled the job of cleaning Leesha's room. Jack watched a lot of Clifford because cleaning Leesha's room takes a long time. Now it's done and looks good. She even seems to appreciate it.

Maggie has figured out how to bat at things, grab them and pull them into her mouth to chew on.

When asked what the bus says, Jack responded; "A' fru a town" (all through the town), and later; "Roun' and roun'".

"Nember" = remember

"Fum" = thumb

Halloween

Jack got to go Trick or Treating for the first time. He was shy at the houses, but what child isn't their first go round? He did not want to let go of the bag of candy, even though it was a bit too heavy for him to hold on to easily. We'd offer to hold it for him and he'd say; "No. 'Smy candy."

This year, he was a Jack O'Lantern.

Maggie was a babybug for a few minutes. She was nursing when we first went out. I guess she was "Eating Baby" and I was "Dairy Queen" at that point.

Leesha didn't get to dress up at all. She was with her dad and they'd been out while the neighbors party was happening. Poor girl. Good thing that my Aunt, our neighbors and Grandma Darlene donated plenty of candy to us so she didn't feel too left out.

At dinner one night, Jeffry said; "What the?" Jack filled in; "Heck."

Jack will come out from somewhere and say; "Here I am!"

Leesha will ask Jack if she can get him out of the car, give him a hug, etc. Many a time, Jack will respond; "No. You may not."